Final Presentation

Creative Presence

Life's A Pitch

Presentation Script

Online Presence

New email

I decided to create a professional email account, seeing as my current address 'emchappell@hotmail.co.uk' is always being flooded with spam emails, and doesn't look that professional anyway. I've had good experience with my college gmail account, which is the server I chose. I wanted to have a short and snappy address, but a lot of the 'elliechappell' or 'elchap' options had already been taken. Therefore I went for 'elliechappellillustration@gmail.com', which is a bit of a mouthful, but its a good start!

Website

I researched into setting up a wordpress website (as I have NO clue how to use code) which seemed fairly straight forward. I experienced the same problem again with domain names, as currently a middle aged woman blogging about motherhood is currently using 'elliechappell.com'. I haven't fully committed to setting up a wordpress yet as I don't have enough content that I am confident with to post online, as well as the money which would not be efficiently utilised at this point in time.

I hope to set up a behance and a linkedin account too, but going with the same principle with lack of content, I have decided to wait a few months before I set these up.

Social Media

I was debating whether or not to set up new accounts for social media, but in the end I decided to keep my instagram and twitter accounts and tidy them up a little (remove cringey photos and tweets that I posted when I was sixteen). Although I have kept my original accounts, I won't solely use them for work purposes. This may seem a little unprofessional, but I prefer following illustrators who post about their personal lives every now and then, as it re-iterates the importance of having a work/out of work life, and sharing other interests with followers.
I stayed away from making a Facebook page, purely because Facebook annoys me so much, and just reminds me of chavs and pregnant teenagers writing mis-spelt status' complaining about their lives.


Shop

I have set up an Etsy shop, which I am really excited about developing. At the moment, I have only listed one product on my shop which are my positive postcards that I produced for 505, but I hope to develop my product range over the summer and properly get some sales going.

Olivier Kulger

Today we had a talk from German reportage illustrator, Olivier Kulger.

Notes:

• When he was 8 years old he bought his first comic book, 'Tintin' which was his main inspiration to get into art
• His dad, also an artist, encouraged him to draw from life instead of comics, which he found hard at first but eventually made progress
• Life drawing classes were the most valuable
• In Hamburg (aged 24-25) he developed a self-driven project where he drew every day for six months and made a book from it. He took this to a book fair in Frankfurt and didn't get any responses sadly
• Kulger took on graphic design jobs following this as he couldn't get any illustrative work
• He applied and was accepted for a scholarship in NY!
• His tutors told him that to be successful he needed to add colour to his work
• As well as adding colour, he also began to add text to drawings, and this is where his practice really took off.
• He started working for the guardian who commissioned editorial jobs for him within the travel column of the paper 
• These involved making sketches of different sceneries, objects and people from different cultures which was really successful
• Went on to draw prison inmates, travelled to Iran and is currently working on projects to do with Syrian Refugees, which are beautiful!

Reflection

I haven't really looked into reportage illustration much myself, but I was really warmed by the emotional expressions through images and words that Kulger portrayed through interviewing people from different cultures, especially the people suffering from the civil war in Syria. I get the impression that experiencing culture first hand and expressing the sounds, smells, images, feelings within a sketchbook is something that is truly special and possesses a really heartfelt quality and authenticity.

I have never considered putting travel and illustration together, but this has really inspired me to take my sketchbook to new places and record my experiences visually to gain a more qualitative understanding of the world around me.

http://www.olivierkugler.com

Visual Identity Continued

Since feeling really deflated about my visual identity, I came back to it today with a positive mindset, reminding myself continuously that I won't be stuck with these designs for the rest of my life and they WILL develop in time!

Business Cards
I decided to continue with the handmade type and pastel colour scheme that I used within 505 within my business cards and letterheads, as I feel that it is one of my stronger pieces from this year and has the strongest representation of the way I work.
I have designed three different varieties of business card, each with a different pattern on the reverse side, which I hope will create some interest amongst the audience. I kept them relatively simple for now, as I aim on working on more creative methods of presentation further down the line in my practice.

Letter Head/Banner
It's safe to say I had well and truly grown out of he dismal grey and black banner on my blog, so I decided to give it a makeover by using the 'Ellie Chappell Illustration' ~logo~ that I had made and adding some of the sun patterns I had used for 505. It looks SO MUCH BETTER. 
I also used these as headers for my professional documents including the acceptance of commission form and creative CV. As they are both my first mockups, I expect that they will need a lot of development in the future, particularly my CV. I feel as if it looks like one that you make when you're in a careers lesson at school, but I will do some further research into layout and design to make it look more professional.

Icon
I decided to get rid of the posey picture of myself as it isn't really that professional. I spent hours yesterday trying to draw an accurate self-portrait but I just kept going round and around in circles and feeling really deflated. I am determined to create an 'Ellie' icon in the next few weeks, but for now I have taken on the form of a short and stumpy cactus just to tide me over.

Visual Identity

It's been a while since I've touched on Studio Brief 3, and the last time I did, I left it feeling very unsure of how I wanted to visually represent my practice. In my last blog post I researched and wrote about practitioners that used illustrative self portrait icons within social media, which is something that I was really keen on trying.

I spent the whole afternoon trying to draw my face, and I kind of just came to the conclusion that I'm not confident enough with my character skills yet to actually use this medium to promote my practice. But it is something that I definitely want to work on.

Some creepy drawings of my face

In situations like these, I have realised that the best strategy is to play to your strengths in order to succeed. In my most recent submission for 505 I really enjoyed making hand made type, and have been told that my handwriting is quite distinctive. I tried a few different styles of type out and selected the ones that were the most aesthetically efficient.

I was happy with this version as I feel that playful and not so rigid, and it isn't too difficult to read (with my standard curly handwriting which isn't). 

Reflection

I'm going to call it a day working on my creative presence for today. I'm finding it SO difficult, and its making me super anxious about my practice in general due to the fact that I'm still in the very early learning stages of the trade, I kind of don't feel ready to represent myself at a professional level at this stage. Although this is a working document and it is bound to develop in correlation with my practice I still feel really under-confident about producing professional documents. Maybe I'm just over-whelmed by the whole thing. I'm not sure. I'm going to come back to it tomorrow.

OUIL505 End of Module Evaluation

Over the course of the year I have developed a strong interest in the human condition, in particular how we think, how we behave and how we respond to different stimuli in different contexts. I have been keen to link this to my practice, looking into how illustration can inform, raise awareness and promote positive change. Therefore the starting point for my project was ‘how can we visually educate people about important issues that are considered as taboo subjects?’ 

I initially intended to produce a creative workshop programme to be introduced in schools revolving around a subject of high importance that wasn’t necessarily touched on or emphasised enough within the school curriculum. Carrying out first hand research by visiting a Primary and a Secondary school and observing the structure of how essential topics were delivered, and practicing methods of delivery myself was really valuable in terms of developing a greater understanding of how different age groups respond in particular environments, and the level of motivation in connection with language and imagery. However through the exploration and development of my ideas I realised that this was a much bigger and intangible project proposal than I had anticipated, as well as diverting away from the fundamental illustrative principles. 

Taking a different approach of designing and producing a product based on an important topic was much more achievable, so I altered my project proposal to producing a ‘self care package’ aimed at teenagers and young adults, in particular students who may be struggling with educational, emotional or any other kind of stress and anxiety. Having experienced difficulties with mental health myself, I was extremely motivated and enthusiastic to develop visual aids and solutions that could potentially help motivate and lift the spirits of others who may be struggling. Carrying out research into the latest adult colouring book craze, many sources have commented on the fact that colouring helps adults to escape from the stress of our highly pressurised and technologically driven society. I went on to develop a mini-colouring book myself to exist within my self care package, as well as a set of four motivational postcards, notebooks and stickers.

I found it really constructive to start practicing hand made type and pattern within this project, as it tied in with the importance of hand crafted aesthetic in creating a softer and more sensitive level of communication with the audience, in contrast to how digital type can often be too bold and brash. Constructing the images and patterns also required a lot of attention to detail, as well as the use of language. This was highly important as I wanted to communicate with my audience at a level, striving to help build confidence and increase self care and awareness rather than being talked down to or patronised which would result in the product being unsuccessful.

I struggled with a few different things during this brief, mostly due to external and ethical principles. For example, I wanted the Positive Pack to appeal to all teenagers and young adults although I discovered that consumer groups that are more likely to purchase products similar to mine tend to be predominantly female. This disheartened me a little as I never intended to create a product that had a gender stereotype association attached to it, and I would highly encourage men to practice self care through my product despite there being a slight stigma around aspects such as colouring not being a ‘masculine’ related practice. 

Secondly, I found the process of creating a range really difficult. Mocking up my designs on products that are heavily associated with consumer culture, for example phone and iPad cases made me feel as if I was contradicting the element of my project proposal relating to ‘escaping from the pressures of society’ by potentially creating a product that could be interpreted as a fad or associated with aesthetic popularity. However, developing ranges that linked to one of my initial ideas of sensory products was much more reassuring and satisfying, knowing that my designs had an association with products such as candles and incense etc helping the target audience to practice self care by soothing the senses.

To conclude, this module has allowed me to further explore and develop my interests in illustrative products, processes and contexts that allow individuals to discover new and interesting things as well as gain a better understanding of and appreciate the ‘real world’ away from consumerism and maintain the importance of self care and wellbeing. I have found this approach so much more engaging and satisfying, and intend to study further into methods in which illustration can promote positive change. I understand that there will be times within my practice and career that I may be challenged with briefs that have a stronger connection with consumer culture and mass media advertising for commercial products; I don’t intend to dismiss these areas completely but I would gain a greater sense of satisfaction if the work that I produced had more highly valued ethical principles. I am really proud of the Positive Pack that I have created, and it has given me confidence to explore the scope of ranges that can be developed from the initial starting point and broaden my ideas and concepts to produce potentially successful illustrative products in the future.

Bigheads: Mama Wolf

Sandra Deichmann : illustrator- she does a bit of everything
Jill Tytherleigh: illustrator publishing
Laura Hughes: illustrator children book

Studio Mama Wolfe. Sophie is the fourth member.
Hackney, East London. Animal friendly studio.

Studio environment: Keeps themselves to themselves, but in a friendly environment. Its a shop as well! The customers are really respectful.
Moved from a small space to a big space, wanted to have stock on display, organise meetings, workshops. It was a vintage clothing shop before. Did a kickstarter to improve their studio- built a mezzanine floor. It creates a sort of community, retain contacts as the kickstarter page stays open. 

Individual practices:

Laura: Children books; several publishers at the same time. Greetings cards get licensed as well as stationary. Big project for waitrose! Common thread? Messy animals, materials paint and ink. Mixed media and energy. 
Personal projects? Not a lot of time, but when she does she is quite pro active. 100 cats exhibition. For the purpose of it, its fun and a good way of meeting new people. Including people who haven't been included in exhibitions.
Jill: 'Multitasker', packaging for Harrods etc. 
Sandra: Every single thing you want you have to work for. If it doesn't exist, make it happen. 2009-10; 'if I was you', 'house stories'.
If you're busy organising projects for people, people notice you! Snowball effect. 

Sandra never really specialised but the other girls did. As long as you put a lot of energy into something you are more likely to be successful. Make sure you are getting enough out of it as other people too; balance between commercial work and self satisfaction.

Jill: Any angle you take, you have to pursue it. 'You can't run before you can walk.

How does selling cards and products fit in with illustrative practice?

Sandra: Partly lives off print sales. 'Fine art but looks illustrative?' Work can be discriptive and emotional that would lend itself to a brief, but she feels like she isn't directly answering the brief. 
Part of 'clay collective'.
Goes with the flow.

What advice would you give your self now when starting out?
EXCERCISE!
Don't be afraid. People are just people. Be confident! 

Open studio June 2nd! 

Wherever you are you build a nest.

Monthly Review: April

How am I doing?

I'm so tired! Having so many deadlines this close together is exhausting, but I guess it is good preparation for the real world.

What am I proud of?

Good question...nothing really in particular this month has stood out as a real turning point for me in terms of the development of my practice, but as we are coming towards the end of the year I am really pleased with my positive attitude towards my work in general in comparison with last year. I am much more confident with experimentation of different materials and processes, and am spending more time doing this instead of obsessively blogging! As well, I have accepted the fact that failure is OKAY, making mistakes is good, and it is not the end of the world if I don't get a first within a module submission. By letting go of some of my anxieties and pushing my experimentation further, I have been able to enjoy and explore areas that I never would have considered touching upon in first year, for example making comic strips, going to different workshops, and just interacting with people in the studio more rather than keeping to myself. 
I can't believe the difference in myself in comparison to the dark hole I got myself into last year, and I only hope that my confidence positivity will keep growing alongside my practice into third year.

Which practitioners have inspired me recently?

In 505 I have been looking at practitioners that use positive language and imagery within their illustrations and products, particularly the sad ghost club. I really admire their mission statement of spreading positivity and awareness about mental health through mini publications and merchandise. Their soft and charming approach to such issues can be appreciated by a variety of audiences, and doesn't isn't so black and white about how unpleasant different stuggles can be (because this would be really off-putting!) 

What am I struggling with/ needs improving?

I've noticed that my time management skills have deteriorated somewhat this year, which is really upsetting for me as I try so hard to be organised! I can look at this in two ways I suppose; one is that it is good that I am utilising my time in a more relaxed manner meaning that I am not obsessively rushing and panicking about my blog looking perfect. On the other hand, it could come down to complacency and running out of steam.

Looking back I realise that my struggles in the first semester set me back by a long stretch, and I have spent the rest of the year compensating for lost time. Now that I am feeling ten times better in myself, I have become increasingly aware of maintaining a positive state of mind and organising my time in such a way that I am placing greater emphasis on self care and not running myself into the ground with exhaustion. I will continue to do this in third year!

Upcoming events, opportunities and deadlines:

• Exhibition art market: I really want to try and sell some of my work at this years art market which will potentially consist of different elements from my 505 submission, and hopefully a few more extras
• Print slot on the 6th
• 505 DEADLINE ON THE 9TH
• PPP deadline the week after